Swedish Poetry 1
Allegro I play Haydn after a black day and feel a
simple warmth in my hands. The keys are willing. Soft hammers strike. The resonance green, lively and calm. The music says freedom exists and someone doesn’t pay the emperor tax. I push down my hands in my Haydnpockets and imitate a person looking on the world calmly. I hoist the Haydnflag - it signifies: “We don’t give in. But want peace.’ The music is a glass-house on the slope where the stones fly, the stones roll. And the stones roll right through but each pane stays whole. From Tomas Tranströmer, Den halvfärdiga himlen (The Half-Finished Heaven), 1962 Translated by Robin Fulton 27 SWEDISH POETRY